


The Big Woman

by AlynnaStrong



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Crack, Dark Humor, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 14:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11853705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlynnaStrong/pseuds/AlynnaStrong
Summary: Brienne summons Jaime to a meeting before traveling north.  She wants to give Oathkeeper back to him; this time she has a good reason.





	The Big Woman

Brienne was seated at a long sturdy table when Jaime arrived. The great hall at Moat Cailin was large enough for a party of raucous northern lords, but today it held only the two of them. She had summoned him under a flag of truce, promised him on her honor that no harm would come to him. That promise wouldn’t have been close to adequate to bring him into hostile territory from most knights, but from her it was enough.

Her face looked drawn and solemn. He never liked to see her sad. If they were traveling together, it meant that he had done something disappointing. She so wanted him to prove that he was a better man that she seemed to take it to heart when he wasn’t. Of course, they hadn’t spent any time together lately, but word would have gotten back to her about…many things. The past year he’d spent fulfilling Cersei’s every wish, and Brienne would surely have counseled many different choices along the way. Still, why didn’t he get some credit for good he did? He’d damped down Cersei’s darker impulses, moderated her merciless judgments. What about that?

Jaime bit back a rueful smile, realizing he’d been having a one-sided argument with her inside his own head. Probably she just looked sad because someone had been unkind to her. She had a tender heart that could be bruised by another’s cruelty. Her heart never hardened, though, so her hopeful nature kept getting her hurt again and again.

“Lady Brienne, I have come to this burnt out wreck of a castle at your request. Why no greeting for an old friend?”

She jumped in her seat, too lost in thought to have noticed his arrival. A gentle smile transformed her features along softer, younger lines. “Ser Jaime, welcome. I am no lady, though. Officially now.”

Jaime approached the table. “What do you mean?” She’d better not have forsaken her title for marriage to some wildling or somehow joined the Night’s Watch.

“I’ve received a letter from my father. It turns out that all I know of my childhood was a lie. I am not Selwyn Tarth’s daughter. I’m a bastard, sired by my uncle – I’d known him as my uncle – Endrew as he served in the Night’s Watch.”

Jaime sat as near her as he could, putting his hand on hers. “Brienne, you can’t think that matters. Not now, with everything that’s happened. Hells, after the war, several of the great houses would be thrilled to find even a bastard to carry on the line.”

His jest fell flat. She looked down at their hands. “I just wanted you to know how much your friendship had meant to me all these years, even if we were seldom on the same side of a fight. You’re a good man, Jaime, at your core. If you listen to your true heart, you’ll always know how to choose what is right. To remind you, I present you with Oathkeeper. It’s the better of the two swords, and it has a more meaningful history.”

If she had brought him all the way up here for some ham-handed attempt to bribe him to betray Cersei. “Brienne, I swear to the gods,” he began angrily.

“You didn’t ask of my mother.”

“Oh, well, Mole’s Town, I assumed,” he tried delicately not to say ‘whore’.

“No, she was a giant…giantess. She left her 20 pound runt of a baby at the Wall. Luckily some rangers found it…me, before I froze to death.”

Jaime was seldom at a loss for words, but this time his mouth started moving before his brain engaged. “Well, that’s not so important, is it? I mean, it’s. You can. Something.”

“I’ve started growing again. The wildlings say it happens to my people around this age. It will be a few years before I reach full height, but I won’t be able to fit into rooms like this much longer. Rooms for humans, I mean.” She stood for him to see. She’d grown perhaps half a foot since he saw her last a few months ago in Riverrun, and she was thicker around the shoulders and waist as well.

“You’re only half-giant. Maybe you won’t get much bigger?” he suggested desperately.

“My body hurts all over. You can’t imagine the pain. I’m going to grow quite a bit more. Maybe I’ll be a small giant, but I’d still be able to bend the Mountain over my knee.”

She didn't look like she was in pain, but then, she never did. “You could still use the sword,” Jaime replied numbly.

“It’ll be a toothpick in six months. It’s too small already, see?” She wrapped her huge hand around the grip of Oathkeeper. Two fingers hung off the bottom. “Take it. Use it and think of me. Mayhap it can give you some guidance after I'm gone.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to the Wall, to fight. I hope you’ll join me there some day. I won’t be hard to find.” She seemed ready to end it there, then a quick, sad smile flickered over her expression. “Jaime? Don’t be scared of me, later. No matter what I look like, I’ll be the same inside. I’d never hurt my friends.”

He hugged her as hard has he could. “I know that, you silly wench. You couldn't.” She was.

He would take Oathkeeper and go south, but only for a time. When he returned to the north, he’d have a dragonglass sword as long as a drafthorse. That would show her he knew who his friends were and how to make the right choices.

 

**Author's Note:**

> It’s like Hagrid’s parents. Best not to think about it too hard.


End file.
